Television broadcasting in Nigeria and Africa as a whole started on October 31, 1959 with the establishment of the “Western Nigeria Service”. WNTV was established by an Act of the Western Region Home of Parliament. Popularly known as “first in Africa”, it was a commercial television operation with transmitters in Ibadan and Abafon (near Ikorodu to feed the Ibadan and Lagos metropolitan area. The establishment of WNTV reflected the political atmosphere of Nigeria at that time. It was a period when loyalties and commitment were stronger for individual region than for the federation. This explains why television broadcasting as was the case in radio.
It was the commitment of regional competition that led to the then Eastern Nigeria to set up its own television station, the “Eastern Nigeria Television” ENTN on October 2, 1960.
WNTV and ENTV share one thing in common, they were built by the same company – overseas Radiffusion. This company owned shares in two stations and was therefore influential in policy formation and programme content. (80% of the programme content was foreign). Before long, relations between overseas Rediffusion and the two regions become strained and the company was paid off by the regions. The successful take-off of television in the West and East led to the desire to establish a federal owned television, this desire was however faced with a lot of political rancor and filibuster as some federal government officials saw television as luxury of entertainment and therefore any monies to be spent on its development should go into maximizing the gains of radio. In the end, the Federal Economic Council of ministers gave the order for the final approval of the establishment of a Federal Government owned Television studio located in Lagos.
The NBC – International, an American Network owned company, was contracted to build the proposed Federal Government Television Service on April 1962, it went on air as the Nigerian Television Service (NTS) jointly owned by both federal government and the NBC-International of America. The joint ownership as a result of five year contract between bodies which provides that:
1. Ownership would solely become that of the federal government at the end of the five years and;
2. NBC – International would train Nigerians to take over the management of the television service.
At the end of the contract on April 2, 1907 the NTS became integrated with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). The call latter now became NBC-TV. Meanwhile regional development of television continued. The above was lifted from the works of Ebo (1994).
2.5.1 Functions of television
Television has three main functions, first, it informs, and secondly, it entertains and socializes people. However, to broaden the review of the function of television the main functions may be identified as
Information: This consists in the collection and dissemination of news. Facts, message, opinions and comments required in order to understand, react knowledgeably and take appropriate decisions. Television news programmes have become hot property. In earlier days, they were regarded as mere public service that the individual stations and networks felt obliged to perform.
Nowadays, these programmes are important sources of income. A Sambe (2005:99-100).
Entertainment: Television commands the firmer ground than all other media in providing entertainment. This is done through the diffusion of sound and images for personal and collective recreation and enjoyment. Television set provides for relaxation. For instance, after a hectic day’s jobs; one sits to watch some of comic plays or the song operas that are meticulously put together by the presents for relaxation. Television programmes also help to reduce tension and at firms stress. Such programmes as drama, funfair, and music are good source of entertainment.
Socialization: By this process a common basis of knowledge is provided which will enable people to behave appropriately as integrated members of the society. It also fosters social unity and awareness, indeed in taking active part in societal activities.
2.5.2 Advantages of television advertising
Advertising on television can give a product or service instant validity and prominence.
You can easily reach the audiences you have targeted by advertising on television.
Children can be reached during cartoons and housewives during the afternoon soap operas.
Television adverts offers the greatest possibility for creative advertising. With a camera, you can take your audience anywhere and show them almost anything.
Television reaches very large audiences – usually much larger than the audience your local newspaper reaches, and it does so during a short period of time.
It has the ability to convey your message with sight, sound and motion.
Television commercials share the largest percentage of these total expenditure expended into advertising campaign in Nigeria. It is an amazing discovery that the budget allocation used in producing a 45 to 60 seconds television commercials is much more than what is used in making a full length 2-3 hours home video in Nigeria. Multinationals like Guinness, MTN, Glo (etc) go as far as South Africa to shoot some of their television commercial, paying flight fee, world class production fee, hotel accommodation for their Staff, Ad Agency Staff and Models, Model fees etc. Companies sometimes spend as much as three to forty million Naira (N3, 000,000-N40, 000,000) on a single 45-60 seconds television commercial.
You will spend nine years of your life watching shadowy images moving in a glass tube. These figures you invite daily into your home look like tiny people. They talk, dance, get into trouble, and even die. They like for 36 or 60 minutes a week and disappear like the genre of Aladdin’s famous lamp, waiting for your remote control to bring them back to life again. These patterns of dancing phosphors try to make you laugh, or cry or at least feel entertained and enlightened.
Some time they ask for your love, and often get it. You become attached to some of these imagines and invite them back more often than your closest relatives. You become best friends with some of these electronic genres and visit them often for years. These genres of the picture tube have the power to change lives. They tell stories, teach you have the world works, show wonders you would see only in pictures books; they try to sell you what they say you need, from deodorant to fast of course, you don’t think of them as ghost or genres; you call them television personalities or celebrities. Jeffrey Shrank (1985:20-22).
These tiny creatures that live in every household were unleashed around 1939. No person is credited with inventing television but it was introduced to the masses at New York world’s fair.
Hundreds of curious people crowded around a television screen not much bigger than this page
to view fuzzy black and white images most thought the invention a clever novelty. The newspaper dismissed the gadgets as a toy the masses had little time to support. These creatures however, have changed the world. They have serve well as messengers of news. And they turned out to be wonderful story teachers. You often talk about them with your friends. The stories they tell on the tube are the myths that shape our society… television is now in its fifties. Some say television is the greatest invention of twentieth century, while others see it as a “cast waste-land”
that steals time. Some blame television for teaching violence, while other claim TV. Turn viewers into cough potatoes. Still others see television as history’s most effective educator bringing knowledge of the universal to even the poorest citizen. Such education they point out was once available only to the wealthy who could afford to travel and to attend the best schools.
Children today seem to know more about the world than their parents or grandparents did at that same age. Jeffrey Shrank (1985:20-22).
When asking for an opinion of television, some described it as a harmless pastime that provides escape from the troubles of daily life other argue that it presents a dangerously unreal picture of the world for every convenience statement about the dangers of television. There seem to be an equally compelling, argument about its benefits. To watch or not to watch that is the decision.
Each time you make that decision, you reveal values, Jeffrey Shrank (1985:20-22).